23 research outputs found
Macular pigment is associated with glare-affected visual function and central visual field loss in glaucoma
Myopia Outcome Study of Atropine in Children (MOSAIC): an investigator-led, double-masked, placebo-controlled, randomised clinical trial protocol
Background: The Myopia Outcome Study of Atropine in Children (MOSAIC) aims to explore the efficacy, safety, acceptability and mechanisms of action of 0.01% unpreserved atropine for myopia control in a European population. Methods: MOSAIC is an investigator-led, double-masked, placebo-controlled, randomised clinical trial (RCT) investigating the efficacy, safety and mechanisms of action of 0.01% atropine for managing progression of myopia. During Phase 1 of the trial, 250 children aged 6-16 years with progressive myopia instil eye drops once nightly in both eyes from randomisation to month 24. From month 24 to 36 participants are re-randomised in Phase 2 of the trial, into continued 0.01% atropine, and washout, at 1:1 ratio for those participants initially randomised to the intervention arm (n=167), during which any potential rebound effects on cessation of treatment will be monitored. All participants initially assigned to the placebo (n=83) crossover to the intervention arm of the study for Phase 2, and from month 24 to 36, instil 0.01% atropine eye drops in both eyes once nightly. Further treatment and monitoring beyond 36 months is planned (Phase 3) and will be designed dependent on the outcomes of Phase 1. Results: The primary outcome measure is cycloplegic spherical equivalent refractive error progression at 24 months. Secondary outcome measures include axial length change as well as the rebound, safety and acceptability profile of 0.01% atropine. Additional analyses will include the mechanisms of action of 0.01% atropine for myopia control. Conclusions: The generalisability of results from previous clinical trials investigating atropine for myopia control is limited by the predominantly Asian ethnicity of previous study populations. MOSAIC is the first RCT to explore the efficacy, safety and mechanisms of action of unpreserved 0.01% atropine in a predominantly White population
Differential Virulence Gene Expression of Group A Streptococcus Serotype M3 in Response to Co-Culture with Moraxella catarrhalis
Streptococcus pyogenes (group A Streptococcus, GAS) and Moraxella catarrhalis are important colonizers and (opportunistic) pathogens of the human respiratory tract. However, current knowledge regarding colonization and pathogenic potential of these two pathogens is based on work involving single bacterial species, even though the interplay between respiratory bacterial species is increasingly important in niche occupation and the development of disease. Therefore, to further define and understand polymicrobial species interactions, we investigated whether gene expression (and hence virulence potential) of GAS would be affected upon co-culture with M. catarrhalis. For co-culture experiments, GAS and M. catarrhalis were cultured in Todd-Hewitt broth supplemented with 0.2% yeast extract (THY) at 37°C with 5% CO2aeration. Each strain was grown in triplicate so that triplicate experiments could be performed. Bacterial RNA was isolated, cDNA synthesized, and microarray transcriptome expression analysis performed. We observed significantly increased (≥4-fold) expression for genes playing a role in GAS virulence such as hyaluronan synthase (hasA), streptococcal mitogenic exotoxin Z (smeZ) and IgG endopeptidase (ideS). In contrast, significantly decreased (≥4-fold) expression was observed in genes involved in energy metabolism and in 12 conserved GAS two-component regulatory systems. This study provides the first evidence that M. catarrhalis increases GAS virulence gene expression during co-culture, and again shows the importance of polymicrobial infections in directing bacterial virulence
Low-dose (0.01%) atropine eye-drops to reduce progression of myopia in children: a multicentre placebo-controlled randomised trial in the UK (CHAMP-UK)—study protocol
Background/aims: To report the protocol of a trial designed to evaluate the efficacy, safety and mechanism of action of low-dose atropine (0.01%) eye-drops for reducing progression of myopia in UK children.
Methods: Multicentre, double-masked, superiority, placebo-controlled, randomised trial. We will enrol children aged 6–12 years with myopia of −0.50 dioptres or worse in both eyes.
We will recruit 289 participants with an allocation ratio of 2:1 (193 atropine; 96 placebo) from five centres. Participants will instil one drop in each eye every day for 2 years and attend a research centre every 6 months. The vehicle and preservative will be the same in both study arms.
The primary outcome is SER of both eyes measured by autorefractor under cycloplegia at 2 years (adjusted for baseline). Secondary outcomes include axial length, best corrected distance visual acuity, near visual acuity, reading speed, pupil diameter, accommodation, adverse event rates and allergic reactions, quality of life (EQ-5D-Y) and tolerability at 2 years. Mechanistic evaluations will include: peripheral axial length, peripheral retinal defocus, anterior chamber depth, iris colour, height and weight, activities questionnaire, ciliary body biometry and chorioretinal thickness. Endpoints from both eyes will be pooled in combined analysis using generalised estimating equations to allow for the correlation between eyes within participant. Three years after cessation of treatment, we will also evaluate refractive error and adverse events.
Conclusions: The Childhood Atropine for Myopia Progression in the UK study will be the first randomised trial reporting outcomes of low-dose atropine eye-drops for children with myopia in a UK population
Extensive Adaptive Changes Occur in the Transcriptome of Streptococcus agalactiae (Group B Streptococcus) in Response to Incubation with Human Blood
To enhance understanding of how Streptococcus agalactiae (group B streptococcus, GBS) adapts during invasive infection, we performed a whole-genome transcriptome analysis after incubation with whole human blood. Global changes occurred in the GBS transcriptome rapidly in response to blood contact following shift from growth in a rich laboratory medium. Most (83%) of the significantly altered transcripts were down-regulated after 30 minutes of incubation in blood, and all functional categories of genes were abundantly represented. We observed complex dynamic changes in the expression of transcriptional regulators and stress response genes that allow GBS to rapidly adapt to blood. The transcripts of relatively few proven virulence genes were up-regulated during the first 90 minutes. However, a key discovery was that genes encoding proteins involved in interaction with the host coagulation/fibrinolysis system and bacterial-host interactions were rapidly up-regulated. Extensive transcript changes also occurred for genes involved in carbohydrate metabolism, including multi-functional proteins and regulators putatively involved in pathogenesis. Finally, we discovered that an incubation temperature closer to that occurring in patients with severe infection and high fever (40°C) induced additional differences in the GBS transcriptome relative to normal body temperature (37°C). Taken together, the data provide extensive new information about transcriptional adaptation of GBS exposed to human blood, a crucial step during GBS pathogenesis in invasive diseases, and identify many new leads for molecular pathogenesis research
Crop Updates 2002 - Geraldton
This session covers twenty seven papers from different authors:
1. Taking the Why out of Wyalkatchem – the new widely adapted wheat variety, Steve Penny Jr, Department of Agriculture
2. Future wheat varieties, Robin Wilson, Iain Barclay,Robyn McLean, Robert Loughman, Jenny Garlinge, Bill Lambe, Neil Venn and Peter Clarke
Department of Agriculture
3. Maximising wheat variety performance through agronomic management, Wal Anderson, Raffaele Del Cima, James Bee, Darshan Sharma, Sheena Lyon, Melaine Kupsch, Mohammad Amjad, Pam Burgess, Veronika Reck, Brenda Shackley, Ray Tugwell, Bindi Webb and Steve Penny Jr
Department of Agriculture
4. Cereal rust update 2002 – a new stem rust on Camm wheat, Robert Loughman1and Robert Park2 1Department of Agriculture, 2University of Sydney
5. Influence of nutrition and environmental factors on seed vigour in wheat, Darshan Sharma, Wal Anderson and Daya Patabendige, Department of Agriculture
6. Cereal aphids and direct feeding damage to cereals, Phil Michael, Department of Agriculture
7. A decision support system for control of aphids and BYDV in cereal crops, Debbie Thackray, Jenny Hawkes and Roger Jones, Department of Agriculture and Centre for Legumes in Mediterranean Agriculture
8. Summary of 2001 weather and seasonal prospects for 2002, David Stephens, Department of Agriculture
9. Towards a management package for grain protein in lupins, Bob French, Senior Research Officer, Department of Agriculture
10. Lupin genotypes respond differently to potash, Bob French and Laurie Wahlsten, Senior Research Officer and Technical Officer, Department of Agriculture
11. Time of harvest for improved seed yield of pulses, G. Riethmuller and B. French, Department of Agriculture
12. Comparing the phosphorus requirement of field pea and wheat, M. Bolland and P. White, Department of Agriculture Western Australia
13. Field pea variety evaluation, T. Khan, Department of Agriculture Western Australia
14. Diamondback moth (DBM) in canola, Kevin Walden, Department of Agriculture
15. WA blackleg resistance ratings on canola varieties for 2002, Ravjit Khangura, Martin J. Barbetti and Graham Walton, Department of Agriculture
16. The effect of single or multiple spray treatments on the control of Diamondback moth (Plutella xylostella) and yield of canola at Wongan Hills, Françoise Berlandier, Paul Carmody and Christiaan Valentine, Department of Agriculture
17. Perennial pastures in annual cropping systems: Lucerne and beyond, Roy Latta and Keith Devenish, Department of Agriculture
18. Nutrition in 2002: Decisions to be made as a result of last season, Bill Bowden,Department of Agriculture
19. Profitability of deep banding lime, Michael O\u27Connell, Chris Gazey and David Gartner, Department of Agriculture
20. Economic comparisons of farming systems for the medium rainfall northern sandplain, Caroline Peek and David Rogers, Department of Agriculture
21. The use of Twist Fungus as a biosecurity measure against Annual Ryegrass Toxicity (ARGT), Greg Shea, GrainGuard Coordinator and George Yan, Biological
and Resource Technology
22. Major outcomes from IWM demonstration sites, Alexandra Douglas, Department of Agriculture
23. Understanding the weed seed bank life of important agricultural weeds, Sally Peltzer and Paul Matson, Department of Agriculture
24. Seeding rate, row spacing and herbicides for weed control, David Minkey, Department of Agriculture
25. Improving weed control in grazed pastures using legumes with low palatability, Clinton Revell and Giles Glasson, Department of Agriculture, Dean Thomas, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Western Australia
26. Group F resistant wild radish: What’s new? Aik Cheam1, Siew Lee1and Mike Clarke2, 1Department of Agriculture WA, 2Aventis Crop Science
27. Knockdown herbicides do not reliably kill small grass weeds, Peter Newman and Glenn Adam, Department of Agricultur
Crop Updates 2001 - Cereals
This session covers forty two papers from different authors:
PLENARY
1. Planning your cropping program in season 2001, Dr Ross Kingwell, Agriculture Western Australia and University of Western Australia
WORKSHOP
2. Can we produce high yields without high inputs? Wal Anderson, Centre for Cropping Systems, Agriculture Western Australia
VARIETIES
3. Local and interstate wheat variety performance and $ return to WA growers, Eddy Pol, Peter Burgess and Ashley Bacon, Agritech Crop Research
CROP ESTABLISHMENT
4 Soil management of waterlogged soils, D.M. Bakker, G.J. Hamilton, D. Houlbrooke and C. Spann, Agriculture Western Australia
5. Effect of soil amelioration on wheat yield in a very dry season, M.A Hamza and W.K. Anderson, Agriculture Western Australia
6. Fuzzy tramlines for more yield and less weed, Paul Blackwell1 and Maurice Black2 1Agriculture Western Australia, 2Harbour Lights Estate, Geraldton
7. Tramline farming for dollar benefits, Paul Blackwell, Agriculture Western Australia
NUTRITION
8. Soil immobile nutrients for no-till crops, M.D.A. Bolland1, R.F. Brennan1,and W.L. Crabtree2, 1Agriculture Western Australia, 2Western Australian No-Tillage Farmers Association
9. Burn stubble windrows: to diagnose soil fertility problems, Bill Bowden, Chris Gazey and Ross Brennan, Agriculture Western Australia
10. Calcium: magnesium ratios; are they important? Bill Bowden1, Rochelle Strahan2, Bob Gilkes2 and Zed Rengel2 1Agriculture Western Australia, 2Department of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition, UWA
11. Responses to late foliar applications of Flexi-N, Stephen Loss, Tim O’Dea, Patrick Gethin, Ryan Guthrie, Lisa Leaver, CSBP futurefarm
12. A comparison of Flexi-N placements, Stephen Loss, Tim O’Dea, Patrick Gethin, Ryan Guthrie, Lisa Leaver, CSBP futurefarm
13. What is the best way to apply potassium? Stephen Loss, Tim O’Dea, Patrick Gethin, Ryan Guthrie, CSBP futurefarm
14. Claying affects potassium nutrition in barley, Stephen Loss, David Phelps, Tim O’Dea, Patrick Gethin, Ryan Guthrie, Lisa Leaver, CSBP futurefarm
15. Nitrogen and potassium improve oaten hay quality, Stephen Loss, Tim O’Dea, Patrick Gethin, Ryan Guthrie, Lisa Leaver, CSBP futurefarm
AGRONOMY
16. Agronomic responses of new wheat varieties in the northern wheatbelt, Darshan Sharma and Wal Anderson, Agriculture Western Australia
17. Wheat agronomy research on the south coast, Mohammad Amjad and Wal Anderson, Agriculture Western Australia
18. Influence of sowing date on wheat yield and quality in the south coast environment, Mohammad Amjadand Wal Anderson, Agriculture Western Australia
19. More profit from durum, Md.Shahajahan Miyan and Wal Anderson, Agriculture Western Australia
20. Enhancing recommendations of flowering and yield in wheat, JamesFisher1, Senthold Asseng2, Bill Bowden1 and Michael Robertson3 ,1AgricultureWestern Australia, 2CSIRO Plant Industry, 3CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems
21. When and where to grow oats, Glenn McDonald, Agriculture Western Australia
22. Managing Gaidner barley for quality, Kevin Young and Blakely Paynter, Agriculture Western Australia
PESTS AND DISEASES
23. Strategies for leaf disease management in wheat, Jatinderpal Bhathal1, Cameron Weeks2, Kith Jayasena1 and Robert Loughman1 ,1Agriculture Western Australia. 2Mingenew-Irwin Group Inc
24. Strategies for leaf disease management in malting barley, K. Jayasena1, Q. Knight2 and R. Loughman1, 1Agriculture Western Australia, 2IAMA Agribusiness
25. Cereal disease diagnostics, Dominie Wright and Nichole Burges, Agriculture Western Australia
26. The big rust: Did you get your money back!! Peter Burgess, Agritech Crop Research
27. Jockey – winning the race against disease in wheat, Lisa-Jane Blacklow, Rob Hulme and Rob Giffith, Aventis CropScience
28. Distribution and incidence of aphids and barley yellow dwarf virus in over-summering grasses in WA wheatbelt, Jenny Hawkes and Roger Jones, CLIMA and Agriculture Western Australia
29. Further developments in forecasting aphid and virus risk in cereals, Debbie Thackray, Jenny Hawkes and Roger Jones, Agriculture Western Australia and Centre for Legumes in Mediterranean Agriculture
30. Effect of root lesion nematodes on wheat yields in Western Australia, S. B. Sharma, S. Kelly and R. Loughman, Crop Improvement Institute, Agriculture Western Australia
31. Rotational crops and varieties for management of root lesion nematodes in Western Australia, S.B. Sharma, S. Kelly and R. Loughman, Crop Improvement Institute, Agriculture Western Australia
WEEDS
32. Phenoxy herbicide tolerance of wheat, Peter Newman and Dave Nicholson, Agriculture Western Australia
33. Tolerance of wheat to phenoxy herbicides,Harmohinder S. Dhammu, Terry Piper and Mario F. D\u27Antuono, Agriculture Western Australia
34. Herbicide tolerance of durum wheats, Harmohinder S. Dhammu, Terry Piper and David Nicholson, Agriculture Western Australia
35. Herbicide tolerance of new wheats, Harmohinder S. Dhammu, Terry Piper and David F. Nicholson, Agriculture Western Australia
BREEDING
36. Towards molecular breeding of barley: construction of a molecular genetic map, Mehmet Cakir1, Nick Galwey1, David Poulsen2, Garry Ablett3, Reg Lance4, Rob Potter5 and Peter Langridge6,1Plant Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, UWA, 2Queensland Department of Primary Industries, Qld, 3Centre for Plant Conservation Genetics Southern Cross University, Lismore NSW, 5SABC Murdoch University, WA, 6Department of Plant Science University of Adelaide, Glen Osmond SA
37. Toward molecular breeding of barley: Identifying markers linked to genes for quantitative traits, Mehmet Cakir1, Nick Galwey1, David Poulsen2, Reg Lance3, Garry Ablett4, Greg Platz2, Joe Panozzo5, Barbara Read6, David Moody5, Andy Barr7 and Peter Langridge7 , 1Plant Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, UWA, 2Queensland Department of Primary Industries, Warwick, QLD,3Agriculture Western Australia, 4Centre for Plant Conservation Genetics, Southern Cross University, Lismore NSW, 5VIDA Private Bag 260, Horsham VIC, 6NSW Dept. of Agriculture, Wagga Wagga NSW, 7Department of Plant Science, University of Adelaide, Glen Osmond SA
38. Can we improve grain yield by breeding for greater early vigour in wheat? Tina Botwright1, Tony Condon1, Robin Wilson2 and Iain Barclay2, 1CSIRO Plant Industry, 2Agriculture Western Australia
MARKETING AND QUALITY
39. The Crop Improvement Royalty, Howard Carr, Agriculture Western Australia
40. GrainGuardÔ - The development of a protection plan for the wheat industry, Greg Shea, Agriculture Western Australia
CLIMATE
41. Rainfall – what happened in 2000 and the prospects for 2001, Ian Foster, Agriculture Western Australia
42. Software for climate management issues, David Tennant,Agriculture Western Australia
CONTRIBUTING AUTHOR CONTACT DETAIL
Psychophysical Impact and Optical and Morphological Characteristics of Symptomatic Non-Advanced Cataract.
Purpose To investigate whetherpsychophysical, morphological, and/or opticalcharacteristics of symptomatic non-advancedcataract are complementary to, or moreappropriate than, visual acuity (VA) for thepurposes of recording visual data that reflectsubjective visual difficulty in patients withcataract that exhibit relative sparing of highcontrast acuity (0.4 logarithm of minimal angleof resolution (logMAR) scale or better)
The Impact of Macular Pigment Augmentation on Visual Performance Using Different Carotenoid formulations.
To investigate changes in macular pigment opticaldensity (MPOD) and visual performance following supplementationwith different macular carotenoid formulations